You know it's coming from a mile away when you hear these fateful words: "Here's a two-way radio so we can keep in touch."

There is a significantly high chance that one of the characters will get killed while the other can do nothing but listen as their final words or screams get Lost in Transmission by Walkie-Talkie Static.

For extra points, add video to the transmission, and have it cut to snow a split second after you catch a glimpse of the horrible monsters that did the deed.

Essentially, it's an Apocalyptic Log broadcast live in real-time. It's a convenient way to pull off a dramatic, emotional death scene while the people on the other end conveniently can't do anything about it. It's also an excellent way to add drama when Mission Control doesn't actually know what did the killing — but now they know that whatever it is, it's obviously deadly.

Examples:

open/close all folders

Anime And Manga

Subverted in Maiden Rose, after Klaus and a young cadet accidentally get caught in the enemy line just as it advances for battle, they steal a radio to make contact with their own troops. By the time they get ahold of the Murakumo crew, Yamamoto is panicking and yelling about how the captain is hurt until suddenly there are several gunshots and Yamamoto's screams. After a prolonged static-y silence Taki (on the receiving side) begins to freak out himself before Klaus comes on the line and says everything's under control and they're heading their way.

Subverted while the crew are in the alien ship. Kane goes exploring by himself and finds the eggs, all the time talking to the other party members on his spacesuit radio. After the egg opens and an immature Xenomorph attacks him, his radio goes dead. However, the other crew members rescue him.

Kane: The pit is completely enclosed. And it's full of leathery objects, like eggs or something. [...] It appears to be completely sealed. Wait a minute, there's movement. It seems to have life. Organic life.

Captain Dallas goes into the air ducts to try to drive the Xenomorph into an airlock and blow it into space. He carries a radio with him to talk to the rest of the crew. They use a tracking device to let him know the alien is getting closer and closer, until it attacks and kills him.

Move, Dallas. Get out! No! Not that way! The other way! Dallas? Dallas!

Done again in Aliens, with the Colonial Marines' video cameras. The crew left behind see and hear the last moments of several Marines before the screens turn to static.

Subverted in Tremors. The other survivors are talking with Burt and Heather Gummer over a CB radio when a Graboid breaks into the Gummers' basement and attacks them. Burt yells "Jesus Christ!" into the radio and the other survivors look at each other sadly, believing that they're as good as dead. Then they hear gunfire coming from the Gummers' house, and we see them blow the Graboid away with high power firearms.

The Dark Knight: Harvey and Rachel get to share this, with Harvey hearing Rachel's death. Of course, this is the whole reason they had transceivers in the first place.

An early example Played for Laughs shows up in Theatre of Blood: a cop hiding in the trunk of a car in an attempt to follow Lionheart ends up parked on train tracks. We hear him over the walkie-talkie to the other cops:

Cop: I can hear a train whistle... (rumbling sound) I can definitely identify it as a train... (sound grows louder) T-R-A... KERRRR-UNNCH.

Literature

In Doom, Fly and the numbskulls guarding him listen to a comrade encountering and being killed by an monster.

In Variable Star telepaths are instantly aware when their linked twins die.

Live Action TV

In The A-Team episode "Skins", preserve ranger Kim Kaboko drives a jeep to a certain spot and catches a group of poachers. They attempt to bribe him, which he reacts to by attempting to call in backup to apprehend them. The poachers shoot him, and the viewer hears his sister Kamora speaking through the radio, trying to raise him.

The introduction level of Doom 3 has the player character listening to people die over his radio every ten seconds after the hell invasion begins. There is even a console video depicting a scientist having his neck snapped by a zombie before cutting to static.

A subverted example from DuckTales (1987), "Where No Duck Has Gone Before". After Courage abandons the boys and Launchpad, Scrooge is angrily watching him on the radio when the Kronk ship goes chasing after him and eventually catches the Phoenix. This disrupts the transmission. However, given that it's Launchpad driving the Kronk ship, Courage doesn't get anything more than a bad scare.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy